1 - Introduction: China’s Latin American Bankers

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of this book, which examines China’s economic expansion into the Western Hemisphere from both the creditor and debtor perspectives while making several contributions. First, this study brings new and original data to bear on the classic question of states’ room to maneuver under ?nancial globalization, a question that is increasingly pertinent given the rise of state-led ?nance over the past two decades. Second, employing a mixed-method approach, this book sheds light on the behavior of state-led ?nancing, particularly how its commercial conditionality rather than policy conditionality a?ects national-level governance decisions. Finally, it makes an important theoretical contribution by disaggregating the structure of global ?nance. The globalization scholarship suggests local state capacity and institutional development can mitigate "race to the bottom" pressures, but this study ?nds that the type of international investment (state vs. market) can also in?uence the extent of policy discretion. The emergence of China’s state-led ?nancing endows governments with greater ?scal space, or the ability to sustain their spending through volatility.